The Quest: An Archetype in Various Cultural Myths Essay

The Quest: An Archetype in Various Cultural Myths Essay

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The Quest Archetype
When examining various cultural myths, one archetype keeps repeating—the image of the quest. This archetype functions with various different mythologies as a method of learning about the world, both its external features and what is inside the self. The quest comes from ancient origins and is found in Classical Western culture, but has been fine tuned through the generations. In its most modern interpretations, there are continuing elements of the age old myth, where extenuating circumstances or hubris, place the hero in turmoil and needing to find an answer. Having additional sexual charges, it is clear that through the quest, adulthood is not only reached but embraced. This answer represents a completeness of being,…show more content…

It is interesting to see that in the bulk of varying cultural identities, the archetype meant to find meaning is transformed into a journey in which experience slowly shapes ignorance into enlightenment. Thus, it is clear that the journey is important in the path to meaning. Through the journey small lessons are individually learned, and then collectively combined to create a more united whole vision of the world that was previously fragmented and lost in misunderstanding before the individual embarked on the quest. And so, the quest is a dominant archetype in numerous cultures. This creates a larger conception of the journey as the path to enlightenment in a way that can transcend beyond other more mundane cultural boundaries. Truth cannot be understood all at once, and thus it is through the quest that we slowly learn the whole truth of the external world piece by piece.
Indigenous traditions represent the oldest cultures which associate the quest archetype with a search for real knowledge of the external world, which was otherwise unavailable to people with little technology to search the external environment empirically. Indigenous quest characteristics come through an active need to learn about a harsh world in order to survive adulthood. With such cultures having limited methods of acquiring knowledge of the external world, the quest then serves as a function to show the development of knowledge needed in order to survive in indigenous society

Myths are a valuable source of archetypes of human attitudes, themes and symbols. Myths not only deepen people’s knowledge about life and beliefs of the ancient Greeks, but also present the image of the contemporary worldview and system of values. They represent attitudes and patterns of timeless values, and raise the universal content. One of the most frequent themes of myths is the context of suffering. Suffering is not onlyt the domain of people, but suffering also affects gods and goddesses…

foreign and unapproachable” (Colombo, p.1). Colombo also states “If you commute, you may be struggling against a feeling of isolation that you’ve never faced before” (Colombo, p. 1).
Colombo also asks in his article “Thinking Critical, Challenging Cultural Myths” “What do instructors mean when they tell you to think critically?” (Colombo, p. 2). In this paragraph Colombo is wanted to let the student know that the college instructors are going to let the student use her own mind and think outside the box…

Archetype Myths in Turn of the Screw
In one surface reading of Henry James’s Turn of the Screw, the governess appears to be a victim of circumstance. Some critics however, say that she is not without blame in the turn of events that characterizes the story. They claim that leading to her demise are certain character flaws, such as envy and pride. In categorizing her character as such, this novella resonates several themes found throughout literature. In Northrop Frye’s essay The Archetypes…

Writer’s Journey, “A myth... is a metaphor for a mystery beyond human comprehension. It is a comparison that helps us understand, by analogy, some aspect of our mysterious selves.” Various countries have myths that connect to their personal background culture. When it is compared, each myth has a different perspective of how things were created in the daily life of a person. This includes countries such as Greece and Egypt and how their backgrounds influences their cultures. Cultural backgrounds play…

A Return to Principles
The United States is shaped by its cultural myths. Cultural myths are widespread views or notions that are held and propagated by a nation to enforce its values. Among the great American cultural myths is the cultural myth of “educational empowerment” (Mann 110). It is the idea that the quantity of schooling is the yardstick of intelligence and the singular predictor of success. The notion that children fed into the machinery of education at an early age will be extruded…

"Globalization, both as an ideology and process, has become the dominant political, economical and cultural force in the 21st century." Quote from "Globalism: The New Market Ideology" by Manfred D.Steger…

Cultural Myths and Advertisements Go Together
In companies wanting to be successful they have to attract customers somehow into buying their products. The most effective way to do so is to advertise/promote the product through TV, magazines, or billboards. These advertisements later lead to people having cultural myths, “a story or idea that explains the culture or customs of people” (Davis). A cultural myth is a traditional story that holds special significance for the people of a given culture…

mankind” (: Carl Jung’s theories on human psychology create a foundation for a better understanding of the archetypes portrayed in Hamlet. Jung focused on the myths and archetypes in relation to the unconscious part of the mind. He believed archetypes are models of human behavior that survived throughout history as they hold true. The archetypal literary criticism analyzes text … The archetypes are embedded within us: shadow, anima, and self. The shadow consists of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires…

are several Cultural Myths about gender and sex. Gary Colombo, who wrote: “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths” explains that a cultural myth is a “shared set of customs, values, ideas, and beliefs, as well as a common language (3).” In “Sisterhood is Complicated” by Ruth Padawer, a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, she focuses on gender and social issues. Padawer shows various stereotypes about gender roles and sex, and how they form multiple cultural myths. Pawader also…

The United States and cultural myths pertaining to this country have been a topic of discussion for many years. Stephanie Coontz’s “The Way We Wish We Were”, David Brooks’ “One Nation Slightly Divisible” and Margaret Atwood’s “A Letter to America” are all essays about different American cultural myths. Each author focuses on a different cultural myth that pertains to the United States. They explain how these myths are thwarting a realistic view of America. As well as changing the perception of the…